Duke Energy proposes new Rankin Avenue substation location for downtown Asheville
ASHEVILLE - In its first public meeting since a pivot away from controversial plans to rebuild the downtown Rankin Avenue substation on a nearby parcel, which threatened to destroy a stand of urban trees, Duke Energy is considering a new site at the corner of Rankin Avenue and Hiawassee Street, a city-owned parking lot currently used by Harrah's Cherokee Center employees.
This project was the subject of an Aug. 8 neighborhood meeting, hosted by Duke on the concrete deck of the Cherokee Center overlooking the substation — with the newly proposed site to the north, and the location previously considered across the street, a public lot fringed with a shock of dark greenery.
Fewer than a dozen people filtered through during the meeting's first hour. Jason Walls, Duke's director of Infrastructure Engagement in North Carolina, described the project's "evolution" and the impact of the new proposal.
About half of the substation's current footprint will remain, the rest extending into the adjacent site at 34 Hiawassee St. in an 'L' shape, Walls said, freeing up part of the parcel behind the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
"It allows the canopy to be maintained," Walls said. "Really, this is a result of us listening to what the community shared with us last year."
Some type of fence or screening is anticipated as part of the project. No renderings were available during the Aug. 8 meeting.
Walls said the project will have to go through the "local regulatory process" in the coming months and, pending permitting and zoning approvals, construction will begin on the new Rankin Avenue substation in 2024, with an estimated completion by late 2025.
'Overall, it's better'
Scott Fowler, an organizer of Friends of Lexington Avenue, a group that adamantly opposed the initial proposed location, said on Aug. 8 he was thankful that Duke "heard our plea" and was keeping the substation on the west side of Rankin Avenue.
"It’s the right thing. It saves public parking for employees who desperately need it and it saves 11,000 square feet of mature hardwood forest in an otherwise treeless part of town," Fowler said. "So we’re very grateful that they heard us.”
Jon Kemske, also at the Aug. 8 meeting, said "no question" it was an improvement from the prior project. He's on the steering committee for DARN (Downtown Asheville Residential Neighbors), and lives within eyeshot of the substation.
"We don’t lose any trees, we don’t have any retaining walls. Overall, it’s better," he said of the new proposal. Though he would prefer a gas-insulated substation, like the one proposed on Patton Avenue ― as opposed to the air-insulated system of the current Rankin Avenue substation ― he suspects Duke's pitch is "probably going to fly."
What about the Patton Avenue substation?
If the Rankin Avenue substation rebuild proceeds as proposed, it will require a temporary, mobile substation to be built on Patton Avenue to serve the area during construction, in the same location as the "future home" of a second new substation.
The Patton Avenue location, at the corner of Knoxville Place, the site of the former Hunter Volvo car dealership, was approved for a substation by Asheville City Council in 2019. Plans included a gas-insulated, high-voltage switchgear substation, and though the project had been in the works for years, with an initial completion date of 2020, it found itself on pause.
More: New Duke Energy substation could serve downtown Asheville's needs 'for a very long time'
According to Duke Energy's project page for both Rankin and Patton avenue substations, once construction is completed at the Rankin Avenue substation, they will move forward with construction plans for the new Patton Avenue substation.
In a July 31 email to the Citizen Times, Duke spokesperson Jeff Brooks said the temporary mobile substation would require a conditional zoning approval from the city.
A mobile substation is a temporary solution used to ensure the continuation of reliable energy service when construction takes place on a permanent substation. A smaller version of a permanent substation, it consists of large equipment, such as transformers, and tall wooden structures holding feeding wires on several sides. The footprint varies based on the make of the substation, space available and needs of the region.
Walls expects it will be at the site for about two years.
More: Substation could 'reactivate' piece of Asheville's western downtown, Duke spokesman says
What were initial plans for the Rankin Avenue substation?
The current substation, which sits at the rear of the Harrah's Cherokee Center at 72 Rankin Ave., behind the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, is over 50 years old, according to Duke, and a rebuild is needed to "provide increased capacity to continue delivering reliable electricity to meet the region’s growing energy needs and help prevent future outages at nearby businesses as a result of the aging infrastructure."
"The substation has reached the end of its useful life," Walls said. "This station specifically serves all of the businesses and the commercial and residential customers in all of downtown Asheville."
It's "critically important," he said, that they are able to rebuild the station "to serve Asheville and the growth that Asheville has experienced for decades to come.”
As part of a potential land swap between Duke and the city, a new substation was originally proposed for a parcel across the street at 57 Rankin Ave., a 0.6-acre, city-owned parking lot, backed by a steep wooded bank, lush with decades-old trees and vegetation, running parallel to North Lexington Avenue below.
But after pushback from city residents and area business owners, decrying the loss of trees as well as the neighborhood's character, things went quiet after two canceled community meetings in August 2022.
That's where the new proposal comes in.
"We’ve put together a plan that allows us to build almost exactly where the station is now, and just using a little bit of other property to build a station and accommodate some of the city’s needs for maintenance and access to their property here," Walls said.
Per the project site, "minimal vegetation clearing is expected" at the new potential location.
The .26-acre parcel at the corner of Rankin Avenue and Hiawassee Street currently houses 28 employee parking spaces, said Chris Corl, the city's director of Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities, the department that encompasses the Harrah's Cherokee Center. Corl said, to his knowledge, the city hasn't been presented an official proposal regarding this property, but knows it's an option Duke has been exploring.
If the lot were to become the location of the substation rebuild, Corl said employee parking could be temporarily housed at another city owned lot at the corner of Page Avenue and Haywood Street.
Walls said the total acreage of the rebuild is less than a half-acre.
More: Downtown Asheville's Thomas Wolfe Auditorium HVAC system failure: What to know
Complicating the substation rebuild is the fate of the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, which has previously been boxed in by the substation, limiting the potential expansion of the venue and the scale of programming.
The auditorium is out of commission for the next several months after a complete HVAC system failure, sparking new calls for major renovations of the aging facility. Corl said movement of the substation could mean opening up the land behind the auditorium for development or expansion of the venue, but he stressed that no plans are certain.
How to give public input
People can offer feedback on the project by calling 800-952-0414 or emailing MountainRegion@duke-energy.com.
Another public meeting will be Aug. 29.
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Duke proposes new Rankin Avenue substation location for downtown
